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Embelia ribes (E. ribes) belongs to the family Myrsinaceae which produce embelin.
The members of the family Myrsinaceae are chemotaxonomically associated with long
alkyl side chain benzoquinones, which are found to constitute 10% of the dry weight of
their berries and 7% of the root bark (Midiwo et
al., 1988). E. ribes possesses great
medicinal importance. The whole plant is used in anti-inflammatory treatment to relieve
rheumatism and fever (Kokwara, 1976). The fruit is bitter in taste and is a good appetizer,
cures tumors, ascites, bronchitis, jaundice and mental disorders (Ravikumar and Ved, 2000).
It was reported that the fruit is used as an anthelmintic, especially in the treatment
of tapeworm infections (Gupta, 1945; and Gamble, 1972), and is also used in the
treatment of dropsy and colic. The gum obtained from the plant is used in the treatment
of dysmenorrhea. The decoction of the leaves is used as a blood purifier (Chopra et al., 1992). Dried berries of this plant have a traditional reputation for showing antifertility
activity (Kakrani and Kakrani, 1982). Embelin is used as anthelmintic and to cure skin diseases
in Ayurveda, Siddha as well as in Unani medicine (Githiori et al., 2003; and Swamy et al.,
2007). Embelin also shows analgesic, anti-inflammatory
(Chitra et al., 1994), antibacterial
(Chitra et al., 2003), antitumor (Chitra et al., 2004) and free radical scavenging activities (Joshi et al., 2007). The decoction of the dried fruits was noted to be useful in the treatment of fevers
and diseases of chest and skin, and the infusion of roots is given for cough and diarrhea
(Chopra et al., 1956). Hartwell (1970) reported that the extracts of E. ribes were useful in the treatment of abdominal tumors and cystic tumors. It was reported that the methanol extract of
the berries showed anti-plaque activity and anti-enzymatic
action (Namba et al., 1986). The seeds were used in mordant dyeing (Venkataraman, 1952). It has also been used as an
analytical reagent (Bheemasankara Rao and Venkateswarlu,
1961, 1962, and 1963). Copper(II) complexes of embelin have been found to display fairly good catalytic activity for
the reduction of molecular oxygen (Abraham and Yusuff, 2003). The derivatives of
embelin also play an important role in the anticancer activity (Xu et al., 2005). Embelin complexes of different metals were also described
(Dhar and Singh, 1986; and Abdul et al., 1987). The authors have reported the speciation of binary complexes of embelin with some
biologically important metal ions (Usharani et
al., 2010). Based on stability constants of binary
complexes of embelin with different metal ions obtained by speciation studies and in view of its
relevance in biological systems, the authors have synthesized and characterized the Cu(II) complex
of embelin in 1:2 molar proportion.
Elemental analysis was performed by Hewlett Packard CHN 185 analyzer. The
metal analysis was obtained on AASFS240, VARIAN Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
. Thermal analysis was performed on SEIKO combined thermal analysis system
(TG/DTA 32), temperature programmable thermal balance and platinum crucible
as container was used for taking thermograms in air. |
